The city of Orilla has made “the difficult decision” to lay off staff in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The municipality "has incredible employees and temporarily suspending the employment of some of our staff was by no means an easy decision,” said Gayle Jackson, the city’s CAO.
“Like so many businesses, the city is faced with the tough choices of how we operate during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“First and foremost is the health of our employees and the community and we hope to re-engage all of our employees in short order as we all work together to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 virus,” said the CAO.
Jackson noted the city will continue to provide critical services to the community.
“I want to assure the public we are doing everything we can to respond proactively to these unprecedented times,” Jackson stressed.
In a media release, it was noted the municipality is taking “a stepped approach in its response to COVID-19, which includes evaluating and scaling back its workforce as required.”
The workload for some city staff during the COVID-19 pandemic “cannot justify continued employment by the municipality at this time, but we are continually monitoring the situation and adapting as necessary.”
The municipality provided its union employee groups the mandatory 10-day notice of pending layoffs today.
The union will work closely with the city to determine what union employees will be temporarily suspended from employment.
The layoff dates for those employee groups are April 10, 2020 for the Environmental Services and Operations and Parks, Recreation and Culture employee groups, and April 15, 2020 for the Clerical and Technical employee group.
There are a total of 121 IBEW union positions at the municipality. In accordance with the union agreement, the corporation issued the required 10-day notice.
An official said the city will work closely with the union to "discuss potential impacted positions and critical tasks moving forward over the next few days. Definitive numbers are not available at this time."
“The local IBEW Union commits to working with the City of Orillia during these difficult times. We will get through this together,” said Tim Pitts, Business Representative for the IBEW Union.
For exempt employees, approximately 20 per cent (19 employees) will be temporarily suspended from employment or have their contracts ended early effective Monday, April 6, 2020.
Mayor Steve Clarke said the move speaks to the ‘gravity’ of the situation.
“Our amazing employees are the backbone of the city’s operations and it’s difficult to see anyone temporarily out of work, but it speaks to the gravity of the COVID-19 situation and the difficult decisions that are being made across the entire community,” said Clarke.
“Our main goal is to keep them safe and healthy and get them back to work as soon as responsibly possible.”
In an internal memo obtained by OrilliaMatters, Jackson noted: "As we continue to navigate through the escalating COVID-19 pandemic situation, the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) has had to make the very difficult decision to move forward with temporarily suspending employment for a number of staff. This includes contract, permanent part-time staff and exempt staff.
“This was a very difficult decision both personally, and on a corporate level, for the SLT. This situation is something none of us could have predicted and we remain hopeful that circumstances will improve soon,” she noted.
She went on to thank all staff for their “flexibility, exceptional work and the dedication you have shown during this pandemic.”
